PH Federal Government has to be warned that people will reprimand us if we do not fulfill the election pledges.
Majority of the people may understand if some of the election pledges are to be postponed in fulfilling due to the constraint of the national coffer.
Many of them may also be accommodative if due to the impossibility in executing some of the election pledges and secondary policies are put in place as replacement.
However, the promise of 20% oil royalty is receiving high expectation by the people of Sarawak, in particular. Unless there is a justifiable reason, fulfillment of such promise is not to be compromised.
The promise of 20% oil royalty does not come to place without due consideration. The internal PH has undergone thorough discussions and debates. It is a package of promise, in which, 20% oil royalty are to be given to Sarawak together with the autonomous rights in education and health. With the additional oil royalty and 50% of taxes collected in Sarawak, Sarawak would be able to finance our own educational and health expenditure, with surplus as estimated.
At the same time, we are able to lift the expenditure burden from the Federal Government while the big chunk of revenue is given to Sarawak.
YB Azmin’s Ministerial Reply in Parliament today was merely talking about the effect of giving away 20% oil royalty without taking into account of the devolution of power in education and health, which will take huge expenditure off the Federal Government. By doing so, definitely he tends to feel that Federal Government may facing problem in sustaining. However, such perception is wrong.
My second point, there is a need for the Federal Government to disclose the formula in calculating the existing 5% oil royalty and the amount that proposed 20% net profit will derive. This is to ease the comparison.
We have to bear in mind that, trustworthiness is one of the vital pillars of any Government. Without that, we are not going to last long in power.